


Baby Come Back

by spuffy_noelle



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-27
Updated: 2013-04-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 16:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/776177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spuffy_noelle/pseuds/spuffy_noelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barney goes to San Francisco to take Lily home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby Come Back

_2030_

_"I don't think I ever told you the story of the time Aunt Lily and Uncle Barney got together. It was Lily's last night in San Francisco the summer she broke off her engagement to Uncle Marshall to go to art school..."_

Lily opens the door to her studio apartment to see the last person in the world she’d ever expect to be standing on the other side of her threshold. "Barney?" There’s genuine shock in her voice. "What’re you doing here?"

"Well I was on my way to my favorite Frisco strip club," he tells her, completely nonchalantly. He hides a smile at her frown. "Guess you haven't had time to hit the clubs, huh?" He pulls out a bottle of her favorite white wine from behind his back. "How about a drink then?"

Lily steps aside, still surprised to see him here. In her apartment. In San Francisco. "I-is everybody okay?"

"Oh, yeah. Everybody's fine. I just happened to be in town, so I thought, 'What could Lily possibly be doing right now that wouldn't be better with me there?'"

She ushers him over to the tiny couch that takes up way too much space in the small room. "Oh, um, how - thoughtful?" She scampers over to the kitchenette, making a show of going through cabinets she knows are bare. “I-uh haven’t had time to pick up any wine glasses. O-or a corkscrew now that I think of it. I’ve been pretty busy going to school, and working on my art...”

Barney doesn’t see a single art project anywhere. “That sounds great,” he tells her with zero enthusiasm. He pulls out a corkscrew from who knows where, pouring wine for her into the plastic cup she’s brought from the kitchen, and whips out a flask from his inside his jacket.

He tilts his flask to her before pouring a healthy amount down his throat. Of all the women who’ve walked in and out of his life, none make him more nervous than Lily Aldrin. She’s his best friend’s girl – but not anymore. Now he might actually have a chance – _if_ he doesn’t screw it up.

It’s not long before the wine is gone. When they finish his flask, Lily sifts through her fridge, finding three wine coolers left over from the one and only time she tried having a girls’ night with some ladies from the art school. Barney’s about to offer to go on a beer run, but she’s sitting so close to him...

He doesn’t know who moves first – in his mind she does, but in reality her head dips close to his and he takes his chance. She tastes just like he imagined, and good God! Don’t let him say anything to fuck this up.

Barney grows bolder when she wraps her arms around his neck and leans into him. She doesn’t protest when he lifts her tiny frame and crosses the room to her bed. At the same time it’s both the best and worst night of his life. In true Barney fashion he decides to focus on the “best” and worry about the “worst” later.

 

It’s three in the morning. They’d stopped what Barney will secretly remember as making love about three hours ago. Lily’d dozed on and off, but he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t want to waste what was most likely the only night he’d get with her.

Lily looks up from her pillow. Barney moves closer to her, perched on his elbow above her. He can tell she’s trying to put together the words he’d known she’d say from the moment he hopped on a plane at JFK. He doesn’t say anything. Gives her the few seconds she needs to break his heart.

"You know I still love Marshall, right?" Lily asks, a worried expression covering her pretty face.

Barney tilts his head down so he can't see the guilt in her eyes. With a small smile on his lips he gives her a single nod. It doesn't matter. He’s still taking her home with him. Even if he's taking her back to Marshall.

_"Well kids, it turned out she loved Uncle Barney more."_


End file.
